By Pierre D. Habel, Latin TeacherLearning a second language such as Latin allows a student to develop a depth of insight into English that far exceeds that of most students. During the November, I will feature four Latin words which allow knowledgeable students to enrich their control of the meaning (and nuance) of English words.

The first word of the month is the verb torqueō. As in English, each Latin verb has principal parts from which all other forms of a verb may be assembled (parent readers may remember learning the series, see[s], seeing, saw, seen, as a way of avoiding ungrammatical statements such as ‘I seen him there’). In Latin, torqueō, torquēre, torsī, tortus has as its basic meaning “twist, turn forcefully, wind, hurl.” It is regularly applied to the action of the arm as it engages in the act of throwing, to the winding of windlasses and catapults, to physical twisting so as to inflict pain, and to the more metaphorical ide of bending things or words out of their original shape. Clearly, it does not seem to be the most pleasant of ideas, yet consider the range of ideas expressed by its English progeny:

torque- measurement of the force that causes an object to rotate (or twist) about an axis

torsion- the twisting of an object; for the Romans, the twisting of strands of horsehair powered their catapults

torture- twisting of the body or mind so as to inflict pain or anguish

tort- a wrongful act for which reparations may be sought in the civil justice system

contort- to twist altogether, as a cirque artist might twist his or her body into an altogether unrecognizable form

distort-to twist or bend an image or statement away from its original appearance or intent

retort- literally, a ‘twisting back’ which nullifies an attack by an opponent by ignoring and attacking him/her in a similar vein

torment- pain of body or mind

One Latin verb has given us tremendous power to express the inner workings of physics, history, law, entertainment, and rhetoric. Check back here in the next issue for insight into another potent Latin word, one which gives us the English word vote.